Fast Forward
by Musicnutt
Summary: Tony has never been a patient man, but for once he wishes that time would just stop. But time bends to no man, not even Ironman.


Was inspired by several Family genre fics and the distinct lacking in number. Do not own IronMan comic or movies. Quite obviously.

* * *

Tony Stark, AKA, Ironman, playboy billionaire has never been a patient man, nor ever claimed to be one. And as most who have the fortune (bad luck according to Fury) to know Tony, also know it is impossible to make him understand that time won't speed up just because he wants it to.

However, when his beloved PA, finally-going-steady-with-girlfriend, Pepper Potts tells him she's pregnant, Tony can't help but think that he should have presented the engagement ring (dust-gathering in his suit pocket) that he had bought two weeks ago, two weeks sooner instead of biting his manicured nails over it and second-guessing himself over and over and over.

* * *

Several weeks after their shotgun wedding (Thank God she said "yes") and extensive honeymoon, Tony lies in bed next to the woman of his dreams, gently stroking the faint bulge that is beginning to show under her nightgown.

A month later they're coming home from the doctor negotiating over baby names: "NO, Tony! You can't name our son Atticus, or Spock, or-"). Son. They were having a baby boy. And as that thought washes over him like a tsunami (every five minutes or so), he can't help but think that this fatherhood thing may not be so bad.

* * *

Suddenly he was driving (at break neck speeds) Pepper to the hospital. She had been overcome by labor pains, two weeks early. Two weeks. It stirred his memory from what seemed like a decade ago, although it had only been like eight months since he proposed (right?). And as Pepper squeezed the life out of his fingers, Tony wondered where the time had gone. And. _Oh God, he wasn't ready. He wasn't ready! _And as that mantra spun in his head like a broken record on crack, Pepper delivered a screaming bloody baby into the doctor's arms.

And suddenly, he's carrying his- _their_ baby boy, their _son_, James Howard Stark. He doesn't even remember when the doctor had placed the blue bundle in his arms. Can't recall the nurse instructing him to support his son's head with his arm. Can't remember asking Rhodes to be his son's Godfather or the man's reaction. But he does remember how radiant his wife looked as she cradled their son. He does remember holding them both, swearing to protect and love for as long as he lived, and the stinging behind his eyes.

Tony remembers the wonder he felt as he watched his son sleep their first night home. He strokes back the feathery soft waves of dark brown from the infant's forehead and lets Pepper slip her arms around his waist from behind and wishes the feeling would last forever.

* * *

Suddenly, James is one year old, and Tony realizes that his son is most definitely a Stark. For two weeks prior, the child had insisted that his parents read the same book over and over again. James would sit silently in Tony's lap and point to each word as they were read, his soft brown eyes wide and inquisitive. Two weeks later, Pepper enthusiastically dragged him over to James' room, and Tony watches as his son, eyes intense with concentration, runs his fingers slowly over the words of a completely different book, mouthing the words. He comes to the startling realization that his son had taught himself to read. James never asks his father to read to him ever again, and Tony wonders what the hell happened.

Two years blur, and suddenly Tony is sitting with Pepper in a Parent-Teacher conference for his three-year old son, debating whether or not to boost James up to kindergarden or even first grade. The boy's growth was astounding, even to Tony, and the teacher (Mrs. Whatsherface) is concerned that the current course (they had courses for three-year olds now?) was not stimulating enough. James had found that making macaroni art was boring and had taken to dismantling two lamps, a computer, and fire alarm. Pepper exchanges an exasperated glance with him, clearly remembering the fate of three Blackberries, and Tony doesn't think that skipping grades is going to harm his son and accepts the offer.

* * *

Several skipped grades later, James is ten and a freshman in high school. He has taken up engineering and mechanics like his father, and often joins Tony in the garage. While Tony enjoys his son's company and playfully banters with him over the placement of the transformer in some do-hicky concerning a science project, he realizes that the top of James' head comes to his waist. This revelation cause a disquieting surge inside of him, and Tony wonders if his chest piece is malfunctioning. Then James looks up at him ,with eyes so similar to his own, in the pure, innocent adoration that only children (and puppies) were capable of, and Tony brushes the feeling aside. He'll think on it later. Right now his son needs his attention.

Two weeks later, at the science fair, Tony plays witness to an incident between James and his classmates. The boys (barely thirteen) sneer and scoff and make insinuations about how James's project shouldn't have been chosen to go to the national fair, because there is no way that a ten-year old could possibly pull off a fully functioning laser satellite without help. When a particularly ugly (he isn't biased) kid asks James if his Daddy made it for him, Tony feels a swoop of righteous fury in his gut that threatens to shoot up his throat and out his mouth. Fury at their stupidity, their false accusations, their refusal to acknowledge the brilliance, the genius of his son. And Tony almost storms over to them, ready to beat the crap out of these snots, when James smiles at them with a calm and maturity that Tony never had and proceeded to account every last measurement and equation that had gone into his project's culmination. His son then politely excuses himself and leaves the bullies to pick their jaws up off the ground. As the Stark family leaves the school, Tony realizes that for all the physical similarities between he and his son, character-wise , James is his mother all over again.

And as they sit in the back of the limo, James between his parents, clutching onto both of their hands as he succumbs to sleep, Tony looks down at their joined hands and remembers when those fingers couldn't even close around his own and wonders again where the time had gone.

* * *

Soon James is graduating from high school at thirteen, and accepting invitations from Harvard, MIT, and every other ivy-league university in and out of the country. He chooses MIT unsurprisingly. And as Tony watches his son receive his diploma and stand with the rest of the class, he is startled to see just how much they tower over his son and wonders where James got the strength to hold his head high without the comfort of peers. Peppers squeezes Tony's arm as they watch him step into the private jet bound for Massachusetts. He has sent Happy with James and hopes it is enough.

To Tony's relief James videoconferences with them after two weeks, and settles into the habit of doing so nearly everyday. His son's voice is almost as constant as the rock music he likes to play while he works in the garage. When James isn't busy reassuring his mother that he was eating properly and so on, they chat as they work. And Tony thinks that letting James dorm is not so bad, and that he can deal without his son at home.

A couple years pass by, and the videoconferences come less and less frequently. James is busy with his projects and maintaining international contacts with the greatest scientific and business minds of the day, and Tony, between his missions for SHEILD, thinks it's okay until James comes home for Christmas, and shocks his parents by speaking fluently in Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, and German. While Pepper is flabbergasted by James' talent and genius( she can never get used to it) Tony is more startled by the deepened quality of his son's voice. And when James hugs him good-bye, Tony feels a jolt , finding that he can meet his son's gaze equally.

* * *

James graduates from MIT at sixteen and comes home. However, Tony realizes for the thousandth time, much has changed. James' face is sharper, more angular. His eyes world-wise and knowing. His mouth lifts in lopsided smirks. He walks with an easy, self-confident stride. He's no longer a boy, but not quite a man, and Tony doesn't know what to make of it. But when James grins at him and asks if he'll help make an extension to the garage so that they can work together, Tony relaxes and inwardly sighs in relief.

Another year flits by, and Tony (or Pepper actually) is integrating James into STARK Ind, and preparing him for the CEO position. James absorbs it quickly and soon is practically running the company. As Tony watches James converse with his business partners in Telaviv and Tokyo over his new project (something to do with nanotechnology) he can't help but wonder when his son had started to look so natural in Armani suits.

* * *

Two years later, James, the youngest CEO in history, is announcing his engagement to Abigail Peters, the bubbly and charming Head of STARK Ind.'s R&D Dept., and Tony swears he can feel the whiplash.

Two months race by and Tony is sitting between Rhodes and Pepper as he watches his son and future daughter-in-law make their vows. The next thing he knows, Pepper is crying, Rhodes is wringing James' hand in congratulations, Abby is kissing him on the cheek, James is hugging him tightly, and Tony wonders why the hell life keeps hitting the fastforward button without his consent.

* * *

Later that night, Tony slips out from beside his wife's sleeping form and walks through the house. When he passes by the garage, he almost wonders why James isn't there enthusiastically chatting with Jarvis or tinkering with one of his many projects or playing his boring-as-hell classical music over the speakers. Then Tony remembers that James is currently in the Bahamas or something and enjoying his honeymoon. The mansion had never felt so terribly empty.

The next night he stares at himself in the bathroom mirror and wonders when the wrinkles and gray hair had sneaked up on him.

The third night Tony finds himself sifting through the old storage boxes in James' closet. The sight of the baby blue infant suit James had worn when they first brought him home stops him cold. As his fingers clutch the soft cotton, he is struck by how small it is, how small James had been, how incredible it had been to cradle his son in his arms. Pepper finds him there, sitting in the middle of James' nearly empty room with the baby clothes in his hands. She sits next to him and entwines their fingers together and gives him a comforting squeeze, leaning her head on his shoulder in silent support.

"It was too fast." He murmurs softly, and Pepper can only hold him.

* * *

_It was too fast._

_But Time bends to no man._

* * *

Two years later, Tony finds himself with a lap full of pink in a private hospital room. He looks up to see James pressing kisses all over Abby's flushed face and feels a warmth balloon in his chest. Audrey Stark, the newest addition to the Stark legacy, slumbers on with her tiny fingers latched onto the tip of his index finger. James's face nearly cracks with the sheer force of his smile, and as Pepper leans over his shoulder to coo over their granddaughter, Tony can't help but feel that everything is okay.

_Time never goes faster or slower than it needs to._

_And that's okay._


End file.
